Learning Doing Gap

The phenomenon (to use a relatively neutral descriptor) of the Learning – Doing Gap seems to occur for a variety of reasons (fear, lack of focus, lack of belief in self-efficacy [caused by many other factors], lack of skills/capacity, laziness, confusing talk with action [talking about what we can/should be doing is not

actually doing it], etc.). Personally, I think it really comes down to three things: the willingness of leaders to commit time and effort to a single-minded focus (on student learning); effective communication skills, ability to build trust (and eliminate fear).

The Dufours sure chose an appropriate title – Learning by Doing. That automatically takes care of being action orientated AND building trust (as we learn together we inevitably make mistakes and take risks… by doing that together, we build trust). At the heart of it – there are no shortcuts. We all want a magic

bullet that makes everything better without much effort. It does take effort but it doesn’t need to be an EXTRA effort. The benefits far outweigh the costs when there is a clear focus and you ‘cut-out’ what doesn’t need to be done. Work smarter and more focused, not harder.